There are new rumours/stories emerging on a new Aussie team approach with an alignment with Cycling Australia.

Cycling Australiaâ€™s largest sponsor has confirmed that he is part of a group considering backing a top-level Australian team in the near future. Gerry Ryan, owner of Jayco caravans, is expected to make an announcement during the Tour Down Under (January 18-23).

â€œIt's not only me. There are several high-profile businessmen around that have been talking to each other," Ryan told The Sydney Morning Herald. â€œTo be sitting in Paris [at the Tour de France] and have that Australian flag on a team car would be ideal.â€...

Ryan also explained that the Sky template of a ProTeam with close links to a national federation is one that any new Australian team would be likely to follow. He believes such a model would be of benefit in the development of young Australian talent.

"That's a model you try and benchmark yourself on,â€ Ryan said. â€œIt's no different to [Australian Rules team] Collingwood, the guns in nurturing bloods. Look at some of the sports science they are doing to get that edge."

For interest, max 75% of riders would be Aussies. This is realistic as teams struggle when the are limited to riders from just one nation.

On GreenEdge, Jayco apparantly wont be the title sponsors (so it would be a long shot if they had a link of enviro friendly caravans). Couple of greenedge vegetarian / organic shops / supermarkets in Australia. I think it is just a name.

The problem with sponsorship of an Australian team is that the sponsors need to be an Australian corporation with international ambitions, otherwise the name on the jersey makes no marketing sense.

It doesn't make much sense for a mining company -- they would be better off wining-and-dining their customers as a form of marketing rather than advertising to sports enthusiasts (who's direct purchase of coal and iron ore is rare). Santos's sponsorship of the TDU is better explained as a form of SA government lobbying rather than marketing.

It would make sense for some classes of product. For example, for sheer cheek alone a sponsorship of a TdF team by the Australian Wine and Brandy Corporation would get coverage. But the marketing budgets of Australian-owned wineries is very small.

Higher education would make sense, except that cycling coverage in their markets of China and India is low.

It would make sense for a surf clothing manufacturer, if their strategy to counter Nike's move into surf clothing is to move into sports and street clothing more widely.

It would make sense for Qantas. Although their marketing people probably shudder with every "Qantas" and "crash" in the same sports section headline.

As you can see, the list of companies for which is makes sense is pretty short. And that's without considering the possibility of it all going horribly wrong (eg anyone think Festina got value for money for their sponsorship?).

gdt wrote:The problem with sponsorship of an Australian team is that the sponsors need to be an Australian corporation with international ambitions, otherwise the name on the jersey makes no marketing sense.

It doesn't make much sense for a mining company -- they would be better off wining-and-dining their customers as a form of marketing rather than advertising to sports enthusiasts (who's direct purchase of coal and iron ore is rare). Santos's sponsorship of the TDU is better explained as a form of SA government lobbying rather than marketing.

It would make sense for some classes of product. For example, for sheer cheek alone a sponsorship of a TdF team by the Australian Wine and Brandy Corporation would get coverage. But the marketing budgets of Australian-owned wineries is very small.

Higher education would make sense, except that cycling coverage in their markets of China and India is low.

It would make sense for a surf clothing manufacturer, if their strategy to counter Nike's move into surf clothing is to move into sports and street clothing more widely.

It would make sense for Qantas. Although their marketing people probably shudder with every "Qantas" and "crash" in the same sports section headline.

As you can see, the list of companies for which is makes sense is pretty short. And that's without considering the possibility of it all going horribly wrong (eg anyone think Festina got value for money for their sponsorship?).

A surfing clothing brand will never be a sponsor - totally wrong market, they will get nothing out of it.

gdt wrote:As you can see, the list of companies for which is makes sense is pretty short. And that's without considering the possibility of it all going horribly wrong (eg anyone think Festina got value for money for their sponsorship?).

Certainly not me I tried selling "Festina" they had no idea as a company of Aussie wear & tear on wristwatches, we replaced so many, sold the final stock, cheap without warranty.

saw an ad today in a liftout from the fin review inviting people to register their interest in sponsoring greenEdge, one of the selling points was "200 days of racing per year, including the Tour De France"

As Shayne Bannan's GreenEdge project ramps up its efforts to gain a UCI ProTeam licence for 2012, a perfect storm is brewing as top teams fight to hold on to their Australian talent. For the riders themselves, it may be a case of once bitten, twice shy.

It would no doubt be a mouth-watering prospect for Australian riders to be linked with a home-grown team, however it is a move that comes with some trepidation, especially following Pegasus Sports' failed bid to create Australia's first-ever ProTeam or second-ever Professional Continental outfit.

Bannan accepts that given that a number of seasoned professionals were caught out by the Pegasus collapse, it's not going to be an 'easy' decision to jump ship to a team in its infancy

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